'Smell Of Corpses': Crimeans Realized It Was War Only After Bodies Of Russian Soldiers Poured In

People in Crimea believed the Russian propaganda initially and began realizing the truth only after the bodies of Russian soldiers began to pour in, said the Ukrainian representative in Crimea.

According to the deputy permanent representative of the president of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Tamila Tasheva, the Russian propaganda was such that "everything was fine, they were conducting a "special operation." People believe there would not be a large number of dead.

"But when a large number of corpses began to be taken to the territory of Crimea, to civilian hospitals, of course, people began to notice that," Tasheva was quoted by The New Voice Of Ukraine, a Kyiv-based news outlet.

She said Russians began to take people to the morgues en masse, they used part of the railway. "According to our data, there was a smell of corpses around the Simferopol railway station. Accordingly, people then realized that the war or "special operation," which was allegedly far away, was affecting them," Tasheva added.

The hospitals in Crimea are now fully reserved for the military. "For example, the 6th city hospital in Simferopol, a hospital in Dzhankoi, was fully occupied for military purposes, for treatment. Doctors all over Crimea are being forced, as is said in a letter from the occupation administration we obtained, to "voluntarily" travel to the so-called "DPR/LPR," she said, adding that Crimean doctors don't want to go there.

According to Tasheva, though Russia has officially made Crimea theirs, they don't consider this population their own. For the same reason, Russia is sending Crimeans to the Eastern areas of Luhansk and Donetsk.

"We are trying to say this and use this counterargument. And, they are sending to the war with Ukraine a population that they do not feel sorry for. This is done with the Crimean Tatars, for example. As for doctors. (They are used) to achieve two goals. The first is propaganda, and the second is that they just lack enough staff to work in the so-called republics," added the representative.

According to Tasheva, many in Crimea are trying to evade the conscription campaign. There are many groups in Telegram messenger where people discuss, consolidate, and rent a car to leave the peninsula through the Russian territory or through third countries.

"We said at the beginning of this new invasion that (Crimean residents) should not join the Russian army: "If you want to avoid this, change SIM cards, and your place of residence, try not to be served with a summons, leave the territory of the peninsula. And we have dozens of appeals from citizens who are trying to leave for such consular assistance," she told The New Voice Of Ukraine.